House may soften deadline for Duke's coal ash cleanup

Tuesday

Jul 1, 2014 at 12:01 AMJul 1, 2014 at 5:56 PM

the Associated Press

RALEIGH — The proposed House version of a bill directing the cleanup of coal ash pits operated by Duke Energy in North Carolina leaves the door open to ease a strict 15-year timeline that the Senate wants.

A draft bill released Tuesday to House Environment Committee members would follow the Senate plan approved last week by directing Duke to close all of its coal ash dumps at 14 sites by 2029. But a new provision would give power to the state environment secretary to grant a variance on any deadline if the utility can show it would produce serious hardship and be economically unreasonable.

The potential delay appears to benefit Duke Energy, which has raised concerns about meeting the deadlines.